We foster innovation, entrepreneurship, and intercultural exchange through Design Thinking

Impact Week is a non-profit program that unites people from a variety of countries and organizations. It promotes innovation and entrepreneurship skill progression in developing and emerging economies as a foundation for sustainable growth by establishing sustainable business models using Design Thinking. It equips the next generation for employment, to become inspiring leaders – successful agripreneurs, entrepreneurs and game-changers, regardless of their field or level of expertise.

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Apply now for our Impact Weeks 2025 in Uganda and Colombia!

Information and link to application form

Ready to create impact with us?

We're always on the lookout for motivated organizers and Senior Coaches to lead our on-site projects.

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Join us to create impact!

Our Impact

51 Impact Weeks

17 countries on 4 continents

1450+ trained Junior Design Thinking Coaches

4850+ participating students

800+ ideas and business models for a better world

Learn more about our impact

Our program approach

We consider ourselves as mentors, not as experts. That’s why we love bringing together people from all sorts of backgrounds who believe in finding innovative ways to solve the world’s problems.

To do so, we organize a 7-day event in different countries of the Global South, called the Impact Week. Our Impact Weeks consist of two parts: a 3-day Train-the-Coach workshop and a 4-day innovation challenge.

Worth noting: Even though the program approach is designed in an equal manner to ensure sustainable success, rest assured that each Impact Week is an original experience in itself!

HOW WE WORK

The Design Thinking process

„From the Impact Week , I first got hope that some of the most complex challenges that the world is facing now can still be tackled once we are willing to look at them from a new perspective, a more inclusive and user centric way.“
Patrick Ndikumana,

university student and local junior coach

METHOD

Our program tracks

As diverse as the people and cultures we encounter are, as distinct are the challenges of each local community. In Colombia people with an entrepreneurial mindset are still tainted by social inequality and criminal activities, Rwanda is facing a growing economy while struggling with suitable infrastructure. To allow for a better perception and handling of the various regional problems, we’ve identified overarching topic areas and organized them into tracks.

TRACKS

Benefits and application

In times of unprecedented and fast change, companies have to constantly innovate in order to stay competitive.

Many companies may struggle to innovate due to complexity or because they lack a clear, systematic and inclusive approach to innovation. Here is where design thinking may present an approach that can be applied in any context where there is a humanrelated challenge. From marketing campaigns to the development of new or enhancement of existing products or services, or even the optimisation of internal processes.

Design thinking is practical, intuitive, dynamic, interactive, flexible, and overall human-centered. It combines everything an innovation process should include.

“The Impact Week for me is always a big learning opportunity, a challenging adventure and a lot of fun.”

Jochen Gürtler, SAP

Our Projects 2024

In 2024, Impact Week is continuing its journey of Design Thinking for Good! This year we are creating impact in 8 different countries all over the globe! While Impact Week Colombia, Albania, Greece, and have already inspired young minds, we are looking forward to unleashing the power of Design Thinking in South Africa, Ghana, and the Philippines.